4 They shall not help you when you cry out, nor
save you in your distress. All these the wind shall carry off, the breeze shall
bear away; But he who takes refuge in me shall inherit the land, and possess my
holy mountain.

For thus says he who is high and exalted,
living eternally, whose name is the Holy One: On high I dwell, and in holiness,
and with the crushed and dejected in spirit, To revive the spirits of the
dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed.

16

I will not accuse forever, nor always be angry;
For their spirits would faint before me, the souls that I have made.

17

Because of their wicked avarice I was angry,
and struck them, hiding myself in wrath, as they went their own rebellious way.

18

I saw their ways, but I will heal them and lead
them; I will give full comfort to them and to those who mourn for them,

19

I, the Creator, who gave them life. Peace,
peace to the far and the near, says the LORD; and I will heal them.

20

But the wicked are like the tossing sea which
cannot be calmed, And its waters cast up mud and filth.

21

No peace for the wicked! says my God.

1 [6] Smooth stones: the Hebrew word
for this expression has the same consonants as the word for
"portion"; instead of making the Lord their portion (cf
⇒ Psalm 16:5), the people adored slabs of stone
which they took from the streambeds in valleys and set up as idols; cf
⇒ Jeremiah 3:9. Therefore, it is implied, they will
be swept away as by a sudden torrent of waters carrying them down the
rocky-bottomed gorge to destruction and death without burial.

2 [9] The king: the pagan god Moloch.
Ambassadors: children sent to him through a sacrificial death.